Scary Crashes Put Armstrong, Herta On The Backfoot In Indianapolis 500 Qualifying

There are few things in motor sports more intense than Indianapolis 500 qualifying with driver hitting speeds over 230 miles per hour.

Add in some hot, windy conditions, and Indianapolis Motorspeedway can get downright treacherous, and caught two drivers out through the first half of the day, each involved in some scary, heavy crashes.

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The first came before qualifying began with Meyer Shank Racing's Marcus Armstrong spinning his No. 66 Honda and hitting the wall hard.

The impact shredded the back half of Armstrong's car, and there was a scary moment when the Kiwi was placed on a stretcher. Thankfully, he gave the crowd a thumbs-up.

While there was some concern that another driver would have to step in for Armstrong, miraculously, he was back at the track later in the afternoon as the team worked to put together a car for him to get a run in and avoid having to take part in Last Chance Qualifying on Sunday just to make the field.

It's a shame because Armstrong had been running well this month, and hopefully, they can put together another car that's just as solid for him.

Once qualifying got underway, we had another scary moment, this time it was during Andretti Global's Colton Herta first run of the day.

Herta lost the rear of his car toward the exit of Turn 1, and after the initial impact his No. 26 Honda flipped on it's lid along the short chute between Turns 1 and 2, hitting the wall again cockpit first.

Thank God IndyCar uses the aeroscreen these days, huh? 

Herta fortunately came out of that ugly crash unscathed, but it put him in the same situation as Armstrong with mechanics racing to put a car together for him so he could complete a run and hopefully avoid having to qualify into the field on Sunday.